Thanks Bob, I have no expierience with handling skunks at all. I end up catching several each year and I am considering putting them up next year. Just kind of hesitant to do so. Once little mistake on a skunk and I will be in rough shape. Like you said expierience is the best thing, but I am still questioning myself if I want to get the expierience or not.

I agree with keeping the bottle of essence upwright. I used a clean Heinze 57 bottle last year (plastic cap) and kept it in my truck within a larger container filled with sawdust so-as to keep the bottle of essence upwright. After I was done with skunk season I took this bottle out of my truck and placed it on my kitchen counter for 2 weeks without a smell... or a peep out of the Mrs..(just alittle test ya know).But I then turned the bottle over to dip the cap in melted wax:causing the essence to meet the cap threads...Then I could smell the essence even through the wax seal. Lesson learned. Keeping the essence away from the top of the bottle (cap and threads) is the way to go.

I cant really add much to what everyone above has said about cutting out the glands, extracting and storing the essence. I do just what they have already described. Here is a vid I made couple years back dispatching a skunk in a trap with acetone. Here are pics of the dispatch pole I made as well. Its a collapsible painter pole. I wrapped athletic tape around the end threads. Cut off the top portion of a plastic pop bottle and pushed this on over the tape. The lid screws on and off. I drilled out a hole thru the platic lid and inserted the syringe plunger thru this. This is then screwed on to the painter pole, the syringe is put on the plunger, put the needle on and you are ready to go. I use a 20cc syringe and a 1" 16 ga needle to administer the acetone. I fill the syringe with 12cc of acetone and try and inject either right behind the shoulder in the rib cage or right under the throat face on above the collar bone of the skunk. First time is the worst, gets easier each time. Been sprayed before too, its your badge of skunk trapping....LOL.Hope this helps you out.